The invention relates to the field of remote controls. More specifically, the invention relates to methods for determining and controlling a piece of equipment to be controlled. The invention also relates to a use, a device and a system implementing these methods.
Remote controls are known from the state of the art for determining and controlling a piece of equipment to be controlled based on a determination of the position of the remote control on a map and its orientation.
For example the document “Home Appliance Control System based on Robust Indoor User Localization using Wifi” by Dhao et al., published by the journal “International Journal on Human Machine Interaction” in 2013 is known. This document describes a system comprising a remote control which in an automatic mode is pointed by a user at a piece of equipment. In this automatic mode, the user controls the piece of equipment at which the remote control is pointed, which is associated with the geographical zone in which it is physically present. The document describes a system determining the piece of equipment based on the user localization and the orientation of the remote control.
Nevertheless, this known solution has various limitations. On the one hand, the system requires training with respect to the position of the pieces of equipment prior to the use of the remote control.
On the other hand, a server must store a map of the environment which contains information on the floors, the zone boundaries, the walls, the siting of each piece of equipment, and the mapping associating the zone with the piece of equipment. Preparation of this map is carried out prior to the use of the remote control. In addition, adding, removing or moving pieces of equipment requires the map to be updated.
Finally, the remote control localization is carried out by training all the zones (training called “fingerprinting”). This training must be carried out prior to the use of the remote control and must be carried out regularly. For example, adding or moving a WiFi station in the environment involves carrying out a new training according to the teaching of this document. This method therefore cannot be used for easy deployment by private individuals in their homes.
For reference, indoor localization technologies are known, such as UWB or EMF.
Ultra wideband (UWB) technology is a technology that makes it possible to geolocate items indoors with an accuracy of the order of a few centimeters to a few tens of centimeters. In order to determine the orientation, another technology is required.
Electromagnetic field (EMF) technology is another technology capable of determining position and orientation. The range of such technology is of the order of 2.5 to 5 meters. This technology is fully disclosed in the document U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,043.